The Weichselboom of Parklaan

The St Lucie Cherry growing against Den Bosch's old city wall on Parklaan is a species most Dutch gardeners have never planted on purpose. Prunus mahaleb is usually grown as rootstock for other cherries, not as a specimen tree in its own right, which is part of why this one, roughly a century old and large enough to be nominated for the Dutch national Bomen Top 50 in 2022, stands out on the municipality's own monumental-tree register. Its Dutch name, Weichselboom, comes from the Weichsel river region further east, where the species is more commonly used for the sour Morello-style cherries that give it its alternative name. Rooted directly against the medieval city wall, the tree has spent its whole life with one side of its root system pressed into centuries-old masonry rather than open soil, a growing condition few trees this size are ever asked to tolerate. The wall itself predates the tree by roughly four centuries, part of the fortifications that once ringed the entire old town before most of it was leveled to regulation height after 1874. Parklaan today is a quiet residential street, and the tree is visible from the pavement without needing to enter anyone's garden.